Customer Reviews

Rimrunners

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Real. Life at the gritty end, on space stations, on the lower decks of military spacecraft, on the rim of known space. This book is set in C. J. Cherryh's 'Merchanters' universe. A (female) crew tech who has been marooned on a station on the Rim signs up in desperation with a cargo ship with shady military connections. Her misgivings are not without foundation! The vocabulary, the ships, the technology, the people and the story are all so convincing that it comes as rather a shock to find oneself back in the 20th century at the end of the book! Yes I'm biased. C. J. Cherryh is my favourite author in any genre. Read her - she'll soon be yours too.

This is yet another of Cherryh's books set in her Alliance-Union universe, but told from a rather different perspective than most of the others in this series.

Very little of this book is actually about the war, instead choosing to focus on a middle-aged female warrior, Bet Yeager, who has been effectively marooned on one of the Rim stations, and living from hand to mouth while avoiding detection by any cognizant authority. Finally left with no more options on the station, she takes a new berth on a 'shadow' spy ship belonging to what to her is the 'enemy'. Once on board, she has to earn the respect of her shipmates, put up with sadistic officers, and keep a clamp on her history from 'the other side'. With this as a basic outline, the story really revolves around her continuing growth as a person, stretching herself to perform actions she didn't believe she was capable of, and the (sometimes strange) friendships she makes as she learns the ins and outs of her new shipboard comrades.

Told in Cherryh's typical breathless style, often with incomplete sentences, a frequent recourse to alphabet-soup acronyms, and backgrounds that are often only sketched in, the story ripples rapidly towards its climax, making for quick reading. Perhaps a little too quick, as there is a little bit of a rushed feeling to the climax. And as always with Cherryh, this style takes some getting used to, and readers unfamiliar with some of other books in the series may feel a little lost.

There is some real action here, of the type that Cherryh is known for, but filtered through Yeager's perceptions. Beyond the action, the item that makes this stand out from the run-of-mill works is the strong character development of Yeager in the face of multiple difficult situations, some of which would have a direct correspondence to the problems of women in the American workplace. Some of Yeager's solutions to certain of her situations will put a new face on casual sexual relations on a mixed gender ship, an item of relevance now for the Navy. But this is not a strident call to the feminist movement, but rather a statement in story form of the real power and necessity of independent women, of women living up to (and being allowed to do so) their full potential.

A different viewpoint, a strong female role model, perhaps a little too short and rushed, but still a strong work.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

If you have ever wished for a "classic" science fiction action adventure novel with a female lead... this is it. Bet Yeager (our hero) is a combat soldier who has been separated from her unit and must find her own way in enemy space. From the very first pages, Yeager is relentlessly focused, unshakeably stubborn, and merciless in the face of attack. She finds allies, but needs no one to rescue her. She can be friendly, but she has never simpered or batted her eyelashes in her life. Yeager is the strongest woman character I have ever met & the book is worth a read for that alone. As always, Cherryh's writing gives you a world (and a character) to fall into. This is my favorite of all of Cherryh's science fiction novels.

Something that I love is a good space opera where the characters are strong and the action is good; and Rimrunners is one of these. Ahhh, I love it, Ms. Cherryh expands her Alliance Space Universe by telling us the story of a former Company Fleet Marine (Elizabeth Yeager) who's trying to get back to the Fleet. However Bet is at the armpit of Alliance Space, Thule station, and she's looking for anyway off station that will take her closer to The Company Fleet. What makes for a strong story is that Ms. Cherryh takes a slightly different approach from other writers with this story by having Bet Yeager being homeless (she's living on the docks of Thule, in the bathrooms we're told) and describes Bet's situation and feelings almost like you're traveling with her. Merging Bet's "situation" with an opportunity to escape Thule on an Alliance ship (Loki, she's "more than she seems") makes for an interesting set of situations for Bet who has to confront her past with her present.

Rating wise this one's a very solid 4.5-5 star book for me. I love the action and the set-up. The characters are nicely done with Ms. Cherryh breathing so much life into Bet Yeager, NG, and the other characters. When you find tertiary character (Mr. Finch, , or even Wolf) who add their print to a book, you have to love it. Merging this with the strength of Ms. Cherryh's Alliance Space Universe make this a space opera that I love to come back and read again and again. Five stars for me or anyone who enjoys CJ Cherry's stories.

Elizabeth "Bet" Yeager finds herself a refugee, stuck aboard a space station that is gradually being wound down for decommissioning. After 20 years as a marine aboard the military vessel Africa, the space-born Yeager refuses to eke out a living by taking station work. She shows up at the registry every day, even after she's reduced to eating nothing and sleeping in a public restroom, because she insists on waiting for a berth aboard a ship. Any ship - including the one that finally has work for her. A "spook" ship, the Loki. Which no crew member leaves except by dying.

Bet knows how to get along just about anywhere, as long as she's in space. She starts making friends aboard the Loki, and the last thing in the universe she wants them to know about her is that she got separated from Africa by the chances of war - because most of Loki's crew members have the best of reasons to hate the military in general and ships like Africa in particular. A former merchanter like NG Ramey, one of Bet's new "mates" in Engineering, probably has more reason than most. So finding herself drawn to Ramey, the Loki's pariah, distresses Bet on more than one level. Yet no man she's ever known has made her feel the way he does...and besides, she understands about being an outsider. So she takes on the lost cause that is NG Ramey, and with him his worst enemy: the Loki's XO.

Bet Yeager could just as easily be a pirate on an ancient Terran ship, and I think it highly likely that such ships formed the model for Cherryh's Loki crew. The future universe depicted here has Humans operating just as we always have on Earth, and while that is frightening it also makes for top-notch adventure and plenty of dramatic tension. My one dissatisfaction with the story is its abrupt ending. I normally enjoy being left with enough loose ends hanging to make me use my imagination; but this time I closed the book feeling that I didn't have enough information to do that. Still, a grand read overall! 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 science fiction EPPIE winner "Regs"

Whew! This science fiction novel keeps you running. Its very, very involving - sucks you right in and keeps you hoping for that happy ending that is anything but assured. Cherryh is great with detail, not too much, not too little, and very clear about what she's imagining - the beveling of the ships mounting, for instance - who would have thought of it? And the very big possibility of death by falling, how did she think of that? The best part is the characterization. The heroine is a heroine indeed - loyalty, smarts and faith in herself amidst the tough calls - the best possible combination of a person who you would like as your friend. That's the theme of this book, friendship, even with all the cool techno stuff, such as mechanized armored suits. This book is truly one of my all time favorite reads in science fiction. The others are Silverberg's "Man in the Maze," Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land," Yarbro's "False Dawn," Lee's "Silver Metal Lover" and most everything that Stephenson has written. Jeesh, I could go on - Philip K. Dick, Robert Anton Wilson, ah --- how could I forget Tim Powers ----

As always, a CJ Cherryh book engages the reader and stirs thought. Our heroine may not be a girl scout, but then anyone reading one of her books probably isn't either. This book adds yet another layer to the Alliance-Union universe, which I can't get enough of. Certainly worth a read.

Forty years ago, I knew the science fiction genre whole -- which is to say I had read all the major authors and knew their family relationships and where they fit in. Since then, the field has evidently expanded and gone in so many different directions that I will never be more than a tourist.

The universe of C.J. Cherryh, though, is one I know -- it's Heinlein's universe (as she tacitly acknowledges in this book by making the denouement turn on powered fighting suits straight out of Starship Troopers). She brings to this book a gift even exceeding Heinlein's for imagining the details of life in in a space station or a hyperspace ship, and making them real to the reader, without ever coming out and explaining anything. She also creates an unforgettable character and situation in Bet Yeager, the professional fighting woman stranded among her enemies.

Moreover, the tension inherent in Yeager's predicament disguises Cherryh's besetting weakness -- the inability to keep a story moving throughout its length, instead of saving all the action for a manic burst in the last 20 pages. I have to confess to having started more Cherryh novels than I have finished, but his one kept me engrossed to the end.

(It is interesting to contrast Cherryh with other woman SF authors such as Ursula LeGuin, who come at the future from a distinctively female point of view. Cherryh is perfectly happy with the Boys Club, as long as the girls can have an equal place in it.

This one is set in the author's "Alliance-Union" universe, but unlike most in that series, it's less about big politics and more about the personal trials and tribulations of Elizabeth "Bet" Yeager, a twenty-year Marine veteran, now unintentionally separated from her ship and just trying to survive as a machinist without the necessary papers. Though she can be deadly when she needs to be, she seems to prefer trying to fit in wherever she finds herself, up to and including sleeping with almost anyone who asks her. Then she finds herself aboard a spy ship operating for the other side and closely involved with NG ("No Good") Ramey, whose mind is the worse for having been denied the necessary drugs for staying sane during hyperdrive, and making both friends and serious enemies among the crew. Because there's a strain of malevolence among the watch officers that bears watching. This isn't one of Cherryh's best novels, but it's an interesting character study. As always, she doesn't stop to explain things to the reader (just like real life, in other words), but you'll soak it up as you go. Unfortunately, the _deus ex machina_ ending is rather abrupt, almost hurried.

This is the first book of hers that I read. I totaly fell in love with her writing. The univers her characters are living in is very interesting, I'm looking forward reading the rest of her books